Cozenry?

Question

Sorry if this is the wrong group.In reading Stephen King's new book, "Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla" I came across this passage at the top of page 403:"Jake rejoined his friends and they made their way into the store. To Susannah, it smelled like ones she'd been in during her time in Mississippi: a mingled aroma of salted meat, leather, spice, coffee, mothballs, and aged cozenry."What is "cozenry"? I only get one hit on Google, and it did not help much. "Cozen" is in the dictionary but it means "to deceive". Or did King just make it up?Thanks,GNB

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GNB wibbled
[nq:1]Sorry if this is the wrong group. In reading Stephen King's new book, "Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla" ... not help much. "Cozen" is in the dictionary but it means "to deceive". Or did King just make it up?[/nq]
Deceptiveness, fraud, cheating, a piece of deception. To cozen is to defraud or cheat, cozenry is an obscure form of cozenage. (I have a friend whose surname is Cozens, I wonder what his ancestors did... spivs, perhaps.)
Not really sure what he's trying to say about the store there, unless it's "fake-old" rather than genuinely old.
Jac

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[nq:1]In reading Stephen King's new book, "Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla" I came across this passage at the ... not help much. "Cozen" is in the dictionary but it means "to deceive". Or did King just make it up?[/nq]
(OED2)
cozenry
("kVz

nrI) (See -ry.)
= cozenage.

1829 Moir in Blackw. Mag. XXVI. 187 No tawdry pencil, disciplined tolie, Cheated thee with its gaudy cozenry.
but in King's context that makes no sense:
cozenage1
("kVz

nIdZ) Forms: 6 cooson-, 6?7 coson-, couson-, coosin-, cousin-, coosnage, 6?8 cosen-, 7 cosin-, coozen-, cousnage, 7?8 cousen-, couzen-, 8 coz'nage, 6? cozenage. (f. cozen v. + -age. In form originally identical with cousinage, whence many word-plays. The most usual 17th c. spellings were cousenage, couzenage; cozenage has prevailed since c 1710.) The practice or habit of cozening; cheating, deception, fraud; the fact of being cheated.

1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. 48 Dissimulation, coosonage and guile.
1598 Barret Theor. Warres v. i. 148 Whosoeuer shall vse any shifting, orcosenage..or any maner of false play.

1614 T. Adams Devil's Banquet 31 Iudas (cannot) swallow downe hiscousenage and treason.

1679 Dryden Troilus & Cr. v. ii, Forces us to pay for our own cozenage.
1709 Steele Tatler No. 15 34 The Arts of his Mind, Cousenage andFalshood.

1821 Byron Two Foscari iv. i, The old Doge..smiled on him With deadlycozenage.

1850 Whipple Ess. & Rev. (ed. 3) I. 105 We observe many queerdevelopments of the cozenage of language.
b. (with a and pl.) An act of cozening; a deception, a fraud; a result or embodiment of cozening, a piece of deception.

1592 Nashe P. Penilesse (ed. 2) 27a, In Playes, all coosonages..are mostliuely anatomized.

1594 Lyly Moth. Bomb. i. i, Then you shall see an exquisite coosnage.
1624 Heywood Gunaik. iv. 186 One that for cousenages and forgeries hadlost his eares.

1686 J. Scott Chr. Life iii. (1696) 141 His Frauds and Cozenages appearlike Specters at his Door.

1881 W. C. Russell Ocean Free Lance III. i. 2 The spectral face..was nocozenage of the lad's fancy.
¶In the following there are plays on or allusions to cousinage.
1600 Rowland Lett. Humours Blood vii. 83 Brotherhood once in kindredbore the sway, But that dates out, and Coosnage hath the day.
1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. i. 1161 There is no kin, but Cousnage.

Martin Ambuhl

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[nq:1]GNB wibbled[/nq]
[nq:2]Sorry if this is the wrong group. In reading Stephen ... means "to deceive". Or did King just make it up?[/nq]
[nq:1]Deceptiveness, fraud, cheating, a piece of deception. To cozen is to defraud or cheat, cozenry is an obscure form of ... perhaps.) Not really sure what he's trying to say about the store there, unless it's "fake-old" rather than genuinely old.[/nq]
But what Susannah is describing is the genuine sort of old store.

I wonder if King meant some other word altogether, like "consortia" or "denizens" or "habitues" or something I can't think of, to convey the idea of the old people who sat around a general store to gossip and play checkers.

Best Donna Richoux

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[nq:2]GNB wibbled Deceptiveness, fraud, cheating, a piece of deception. To ... the store there, unless it's "fake-old" rather than genuinely old.[/nq]
[nq:1]But what Susannah is describing is the genuine sort of old store. I wonder if King meant some other word ... of, to convey the idea of the old people who sat around a general store to gossip and play checkers.[/nq]
I suspect a pseudo-dialect respelling of "cousinry".

Don Aitken
Mail to the addresses given in the headers is no longer being read. To mail me, substitute "clara.co.uk" for "freeuk.com".

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[nq:1]I wonder if King meant some other word altogether, like "consortia" or "denizens" or "habitues" or something I can't think of, to convey the idea of the old people who sat around a general store to gossip and play checkers.[/nq]
Citizenry?

Ray Heindl
(remove the Xs to reply to: (Email Removed))

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[nq:2]But what Susannah is describing is the genuine sort of ... sat around a general store to gossip and play checkers.[/nq]
[nq:1]I suspect a pseudo-dialect respelling of "cousinry".[/nq]
Yup,
"\Cous"***\ (k?z"'n-r?), n. A body or collection of cousins; the whole number of persons who stand in the relation of cousins to a given person or persons."
Not a word I'd encountered before, but I suspect King's looking for (or indeed inventing with z spelling) a sinister-sounding word which in combinning dialect, archaic spelling, and extended families suggests a community which is, shall we say, a tad inbred. 'Kin' is a good word which can have similar creepy connotaions...
DCC

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[nq:2]But what Susannah is describing is the genuine sort of ... sat around a general store to gossip and play checkers.[/nq]
[nq:1]I suspect a pseudo-dialect respelling of "cousinry".[/nq]
More likely, an old variant spelling which King came across somewhere. The Century Dictionary doesn't give it as an alternate spelling for "cousinry," but it does have "cozen" as an alternate spelling for "cousin":

From
www.century-dictionary.com
(quote)
cousin 1 , n. and a. (Early mod. E. also cosin, cozin, cosen, cozen, coosin, coosen ; < ME. cousin, cosin, cosyn, also cousine (which is sometimes used as fem., distinguished from masc. cousin ) < OF. cosin, cusin, cousin, F. cousin L. consobrinus )"

(end quote)
As it happens, the word "cozen" meaning "to deceive" is related:
(quote)
cozen 1(obsolete, n. An obsolete spelling of cousin 1.

cozen 2 , v. (Early mod. E. also cosen, cosin, coozen, coosen, coosin, couzen, cousen, cousin, being orig. identical in form and connected in sense with cousin, a relative ; < F. cousiner, call "cousin," claim kindred for advantage, sponge, < cousin, cousin : see cousin 1, n. and v. )
(end quote)

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

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[nq:2]In reading Stephen King's new book, "Dark Tower V: Wolves ... means "to deceive". Or did King just make it up?[/nq]
[nq:1](OED2) cozenry ("kVz

nrI) (See -ry.) = cozenage. 1829 Moir in Blackw. Mag. XXVI. 187 No tawdry pencil, disciplined to lie, ... context that makes no sense: cozenage1... The practice or habit of cozening; cheating, deception, fraud; the fact of being cheated..[/nq]
It makes sense to me. The store is redolent literally of its stock and figuratively of the long history of deceptive sales practice there. Its atmosphere suggests years of cozenage.

By the way, especially in view of the citation from Moir, whoever he was am I the only one getting STS? "Lone lie/ The fields of cozenry,/ Where we used to watch the small free birds flie."

Jerry Friedman

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[nq:2](OED2) cozenry ("kVz

nrI) (See -ry.) = cozenage. 1829 Moir in ... cozenry. but in King's context that makes no sense: cozenage1[/nq]
[nq:2]The practice or habit of cozening; cheating, deception, fraud; the fact of being cheated.[/nq]
[nq:1]... It makes sense to me. The store is redolent literally of its stock and figuratively of the long history ... only one getting STS? "Lone lie/ The fields of cozenry,/ Where we used to watch the small free birds flie."[/nq]
Another wry answer. Corny, but true.

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Thanks for all the replies!
GNB

Cozenry?

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